Keep Her Safe – Review

Maggie’s daughter Penny is her whole world… and she’d do anything to protect her. So when Maggie wakes one night to find a strange woman in her home, she runs to lock herself in her bedroom with her child. But Maggie knows why she’s come…

Someone has been targeting mothers and offering them a choice: do as he says or their child disappears. This stranger in her home has until dawn to follow his orders… but Maggie too has the ‘choice’ to make. Can she put the pieces together to stop the cycle before her time is up?

An edge-of-your-seat thriller that will keep you guessing until the last page. Perfect for fans of Adam Croft and Tess Gerritsen.

REVIEW:

Thank you to Richard Parker, Bookouture, and Netgalley for providing an ARC for review.

Keep Her Safe was an entertaining page-turner from beginning to end. The synopsis pulled me in, making me eager to see how this story would play out.

When two mothers are pitted against each other, they both must determine the lengths they will go to protect their children from imminent danger. As a mother myself, I enjoyed reading about the maternal instincts of the two main characters. The story definitely makes one evaluate what they would do if forced into the same position. Do morals outweigh instinct?

The first half of the story won me over and I couldn’t wait to see what would happen. I hoped the women would join forces to outwit their common opponent as their time to keep their daughters safe ticked away. However, after the halfway mark, the story took a bit of an odd and far-fetched direction. Up until this point, there weren’t any clues within the plot to show the story would take this turn. It almost seemed as if the author wasn’t sure where he wanted to take the story.

One of the most annoying aspects, to me, was when either Maggie or Holly made a suggestion, the other immediately agreed. This didn’t seem very realistic to me, as I’d hope for both characters to be a bit more determined and decisive while their children’s lives were at stake.

Overall, I could only give this novel a middle of the road rating. I enjoyed the story enough. It was a quick and entertaining read, but the plot was lacking and the characters needed a bit more backstory to make them relatable and lifelike. I think with a bit of fleshing out, Keep Her Safe could have been an excellent thriller. Instead, I imagine the author needing to make a deadline and slightly missing the mark. I hate for my thoughts to wander in this direction while reading because I obviously want to be fully immersed in the story. All in all, a decent read, but I hoped for more.